


Symbiosis

by slashyrogue



Category: Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, M/M, Pre-Slash, Younger Eddie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 15:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16432163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashyrogue/pseuds/slashyrogue
Summary: Eddie meets Venom when he's eleven.And again when he's eighteen.Every time his fear keeps them apart.Until it doesn't.





	Symbiosis

Eddie knows there is something wrong with Mr. Henderson where he comes home from school that day.

 

Mostly because he’s brought home eight pepperoni pizzas. 

 

His newest foster parents always bought cheap food to keep him alive for the money that came in and Eddie made his own meals. 

 

He’d had plenty of practice doing that when was with Dad after Mom died, his cold glares and that last night a nightmare still that kept him up sometimes. 

 

But this? This wasn’t Mr. Henderson. 

 

“ **Hello** ,” it says, eyes narrowing as if trying to remember Eddie’s name, “ **Eddie** .” 

 

Eddie was eleven years old but he wasn’t a fucking idiot. 

 

“Who are you?” 

 

The thing in Mr. Henderson’s body smiles. “ **We are your....parent** .” 

 

“No, you’re not,” Eddie says, taking a piece of pizza, “Mr. H hates me.” 

 

The thing hesitates and says, “ **Yes, he does. You are good...money** .” 

 

Eddie sits down at the table across from it. 

 

“What are you? An alien?” 

 

The thing smiles. “ **We are Venom, and are very hungry. This body is not very good** .” 

 

Eddie’s hands shake as he takes another piece. He hasn’t tasted anything this good in a long time. “Are you gonna hurt me?” 

 

“ **Young human heads are not very tasty** ,” Venom says, “ **Though older heads are** .” 

 

Eddie pales. “You ate someone’s head?” 

 

Venom smiles and shifts, an odd blackness to his face that Eddie knows will join in the nightmares of his father tonight. 

 

“ **Many** .” 

 

He moves back just as a black thing comes out of Mr. H’s hand, pinning his hand there. It tickles, the touch, and he watches as a shiver goes through it. 

 

“ **We are very compatible, Eddie. Yes, very** .” 

 

“What’s that mean?” Eddie says, terrified. 

 

The black thing goes back into Mr. Henderson’s hand and Venom relaxes back. 

 

“ **I will protect you until it’s time to be my host.** ” 

 

“I don’t want to be your host,” Eddie says, standing, “I...” 

 

Venom stands and to Eddie’s horror morphs into a monster the likes in which Eddie’s never seen. The black gooey terrifying thing makes Eddie back up against the fridge. 

 

“ **Do we frighten you, Eddie** ?” 

 

He nods. 

 

“ **Then we will come back,** ” Venom says, morphing again as he turns to leave, “ **When you are not so frightened** .” 

 

Eddie slides down to the floor as he watches his foster father’s body walk out and it’s only a few days later when he’s found. 

 

Headless. 

 

Mrs. Henderson’s body is never found at all, which leaves questions Eddie doesn’t want to answer and why he goes to a state run orphanage till he’s eighteen.

 

No one believes him. 

 

The counselors all think he’s the one who killed his foster parents, are sure of it, so their recommendation is to keep him there. 

 

When he’s eighteen he leaves the orphanage and gets a job at a corner store, sweeping up and stocking shelves. It’s a shit job, but it gives him enough money to only need two jobs instead of three. 

 

His other job busing tables at the diner gives the rest. 

 

It’s at that job that he sees Venom again. 

 

The minute he watches the woman walk inside Eddie freezes, recognizing the odd gait and even more odd eyes. Venom sits in a booth not yet cleared so Eddie has to go the table or risk his job. 

 

He’s grabbing the dirty plate when Venom, whose skin is nearly cracked by the pressure of having a monster inside her, grabs his arm. 

 

“ **Hello, Eddie** .” 

 

Eddie’s eyes tear up. “No.” 

 

“ **We’ve waited, Eddie. We have. But now....** ” 

 

Eddie moves back and drops the dishes in his hands. “LEAVE ME ALONE!” 

 

He runs from the diner, from everything, and uses what little money he has to get on a bus. 

 

The whole long ride from New York to California he sleeps in between nightmares that had long since gone but now seem technicolor. 

 

He gets off the bus and finds a hotel, gets a shit job, and then stumbles onto what will eventually be his career. 

 

Gage Gourmand is a private investigator who takes lunch at a restaurant Eddie where buses tables. He becomes a regular, talks up Eddie, and eventually asks him if he’d like to make a few bucks taking pictures.

 

It’s a lucky thing, the whole gig, fun and different. 

 

He takes to it better than any job he’s ever had, and after that graduates into a reporter gig for a shitty tabloid newspaper that’s given away on the street. Mr. Lee likes Eddie, thinks he doesn’t complain, and just a year into living there things feel right again. 

 

Then, of course, someone stabs him. 

 

Eddie didn’t normally go through the park after work but for some reason that night he does. A mugger takes his wallet, his camera, and then shoots him in the belly for no reason at all. He’s lying on the grass, bleeding out, when a voice makes Eddie laugh. 

 

“ **Do you need us now** ?” 

 

Venom is in the body of a child, which is odd to him since the alien hadn’t taken his what seems like so long ago. “Oh fuck, just let me die.” 

 

He watches as the monster slithers out of the little boy, whose body drops onto the grass hopefully alive. 

 

“ **We can’t do that, Eddie. You are...perfect** .” 

 

Before Eddie can respond, his whole body seizes up as Venom slithers inside of him. He shudders at the feel, cold and searching, and as they bond Eddie realizes he’s been running far too long. 

 

“Wow,” he whispers. 

 

He touches where the stab wound was on his belly and feels nothing there. 

 

“ **We protected you. As we said** .” 

 

Eddie closes his eyes and feels like he could bench press ten thousand pounds. 

 

“This is fucking great, though I am really hungry.” 

 

Venom’s voice drips with amusement. “ **We are hungry too, Eddie** .” 

 

He sits up and sees the little boy, still out cold and to his relief alive. 

 

“I thought you didn’t eat children.” 

 

“ **Toby was a passenger, not a host. Children are too young to be hosts. Not enough inside.** ” 

 

Eddie takes off his bloody shirt and stuffs it into his backpack. 

 

“But I’m okay now?” 

 

“ **You are Eddie, not a host and not a passenger. You are ours** .” 

 

Eddie tries not to feel oddly warm at the idea of someone wanting to keep him for the first time. 

  
“How did you know where I was?” 

 

**“We always know, Eddie. Your body sings to us. We….”** Venom lets loose a black tendril that tickles Eddie’s wrist,  **“...will always find you.”**

 

He feels his eyes tear up and Venom’s presence inside of him feels like all the love he’s never been given. 

 

“I’m not afraid of you anymore.” 

 

Venom suddenly appears out of his side and the monstrous face he had nightmares about now makes him smile. 

 

**“That makes us very happy.”**

 

Eddie feels that happiness spread through him and lets out a laugh. “It makes me happy too.” 

 

 

They stand and Eddie feels Venom inside him, living in his veins and filling him up with the protection he's given for so long. 

 

"What do we do now?" 

 

Venom starts to cover his body completely and Eddie stares in fascination at the transformation. 

 

**"We feed."**


End file.
